New Emagine Theater planned for Roseville

The curtain for Macomb County’s newest movie theater is expected to rise next summer in Roseville.

Emagine Entertainment recently submitted a site plan, environmental assessment and other documents for city review for a proposed site at the former Kmart store on 13 Mile Road east of Little Mack, which is near an Interstate 94 entrance/exit.

“I would say this is the optimal site because it has adequate parking and, moreover, has close proximity to I-94, which will allow us to expand our trade area from Grosse Pointe up to Marine City,” CEO Paul Glantz said Friday.

The $20 million, 15-screen venue will include a 78,000-square-foot building with 3,162 seats. A premier auditorium will feature the state’s largest movie screen that will be 50 feet tall and 84 feet wide. Plans also include a 6,000-square-foot outlot restaurant.

Emagine will seek a variance for a 55-foot sign.

Glantz expects demolition on the Kmart to take place in early 2014 and construction will begin soon afterward.

The company has actively been seeking a site in southeast Macomb County after ruling out a similar location on 12 Mile Road near Little Mack in neighboring St. Clair Shores. Company officials also reviewed property in Grosse Pointe but later decided the area lacked sufficient parking space.

Emagine Entertainment officials feel the Grosse Pointes-St. Clair Shores-Eastpointe area is underserved by the lack of a quality movie theater. AMC has a complex on Gratiot Avenue at 15 Mile Road in Clinton Township, while Silver Cinemas operates a second-run movie house at Macomb Mall in Roseville.

After ruling out potential locations in Grosse Pointe and St. Clair Shores, Glantz said company scouts centered on the Kmart property about a year ago. Over the winter, Emagine gained a land contract for the 9-acre property.

“We have a theater up in Birch Run near a Meijer, like the Roseville location, and we found that theaters near well-traveled retailers do very well,” Glantz said. “In Roseville, there’s Meijer, the Home Depot store and others on Gratiot. I am very happy with how things turned out.”

Roseville Mayor John Chirkun was equally as happy.

“We are very excited to have a top-shelf movie theater such as Emagine coming to our city,” Chirkun said. “Our city has a lot going for it, and here is yet another example.”

The Roseville theater will be Emagine’s first venture into Macomb County. Emagine has six existing theaters in southeast Michigan including Birch Run, Canton, Novi, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak and Woodhaven. The Royal Oak movieplex has a bowling alley that the Macomb location will not have.

Emagine sets itself apart from other chains by offering wider aisle space, luxury seating, and adult patrons may purchase cocktails, beer and wine. It was the first theater chain in the world to convert to 100 percent digital projection.